‘Sakala’ net to get wider in Puttur taluk

The State government will bring 118 more services under “Sakala” (The Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act) on a pilot basis in Puttur taluk in Dakshina Kannada on November 1, according to the Deputy Commissioner N.S. Channappa Gowda.

This would be in addition to 151 services brought under the Act, he told The Hindu.

Mr. Channappa Gowda said that the additional 118 services would be extended to other taluks in the district on December 1. With this, 269 services of the government would come under “Sakala”.

Some of the departments whose services had been brought under the Act additionally would include Energy; Veterinary and Fisheries; Social Welfare; Public Works, Ports and Inland Water Transport; and the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms.

The services of Karnataka Housing Board (KHB), the Karnataka Slum Development Board, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, and the Bangalore Development Authority had been brought under the Act, he said. Additional Deputy Commissioner Dayananda K.A. said that select services of Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd. would come under the Act.

Some of the services listed would include disposal of applications for new power connection, change of ownership of the connection, refunding deposit, issuing certificates, re-connecting power supply, converting single phase power supply to three phase supply, converting low tension power supply to high tension supply and vice-versa and providing 11 kV and 33 kV power, he said. Disposal of complaints on to electricity meters and failure of transformers and restoring power supply lines are also covered under the new guidelines.

He said that under the Fisheries Department issuing licences for registering boats and issuing licences for fishing in lakes have been brought under the Act.

Under the Public Works Department, issuing permission for cutting roads and issuing permission for putting up hoardings and building structures had been brought under the Act.

Issuing no-objection certificate from Karnataka State Slum Development Board for repairing houses and transferring ownership rights of houses built by the board had been added under the Act.